Magic Has Its Price
by BeshterAngelus
Summary: No one knows better than Emma Swan that magic has its price.


AN: I write this over a year ago and came across it on my computer. I thought I would post it even if the series has moved well past this point.

Magic always comes with a price…that's what the nurse had told her as she allowed Emma to glance at the tiny bundle wrapped in white fleece, the bundle she had just spent twenty-one hours in labor with. The price had been worth it, she had thought to herself, as she stared at the sweet little face with its tuft of dark hair, still squashed and red from birth. She had longed, just for once, to hold him, to touch him, to have someone in this world that belonged totally to her, who wanted her, needed her, and would accept her with no questions. For one instant, she wanted to grasp on to this magical little being and cling tightly, and never, ever let go of him.

But the moment passed as the social worker kindly intruded, and before Emma could change her mind, whisked the baby away from her with gentle assurances that he was going to a good home and he would be well taken care of. He would have all the chances that Emma, single, teenaged, and alone, could not give to him. Numb, she nodded, signing the papers in a hand still wobbly from the pain medication and endorphins in her system, and whispered one final goodbye to the only family she had ever known in her life. Emma held on to her tears till after the baby was hurried around the corner, never to be seen by her again.

Or so she had thought…

Ten years later, the baby was now a child, and he watched her with the same sort of know-it-all impatience she had displayed to adults when she was his age. His mother, Regina, was due to be at his house in twenty minutes, and he was stopped cold in front of her old, beat up Bug, refusing to budge until she answered his question.

"Why did you give him what he wanted?"

"Who?" They didn't have time for this, but Henry's jaw set stubbornly, and Emma sadly recognized that gesture too. Was there nothing of Regina in his behavior then?

"Mr. Gold. You don't know what he's asking for!"

"He's a pawn broker, kid, what in the world could he ask for?"

Clearly that part hadn't occurred to him. "I don't know. But in all the stories it's always a bad idea to make a deal like that."

"Like what?" This was a conversation they could continue in the car. Emma firmly grabbed Henry's thin shoulders, steering him to the other side of the car.

"If you make a deal with a witch, or with someone like Rumplestiltskin, you always have a huge price to pay for it." His face was solemn as she opened the passenger's side door. "There are no easy ways out of situations, you can't just use magic to fix things."

How Emma had wished in her life that there had been a fairy godmother or something to make all of her life right. She pushed Henry into the car. How could she explain why she had done what she did to him? How could she ask a ten-year-old to understand the grown up decision to give up something so precious as a child?

He wasn't about to back down even as she started the car, throttling the engine enough to peel back towards Regina's house. "Why would he give in so easily and let Ashley keep the baby? He's getting money of the deal, why would he give that up?"

"I don't know," Emma sighed. She had considered that. Gold didn't strike her as the type to do things out of the goodness of his heart, not as a pawnbroker. And she imagined there was a lot of money to be had in selling children to families who desperately wanted them. Her heart ached at that thought. Whatever she agreed to, it would likely be something that she was not going to be happy about, something that cost dearly, and she doubted it would be in the way of money. That would be too easy to a man who practically owned the town. No…it would be something else, something much harder to give away than simple cash. Damn it! Now Henry had her doing it too. She glared sideways at his knowing nod.

"Look, it was the right thing to do. I couldn't allow someone to take her baby when she wasn't willing to give her up."

"You were willing to give me up."

Emma should have seen that statement coming. Henry hadn't meant it accusingly, but it hit her hard, and she remembered that moment when a nurse had held him out to her, the tiniest human being she had ever seen. How badly she had wanted to keep him…and how terrified she had been at the awful responsibility put before her. Magic had its price and every quick fix to a situation had its drawback. Ill prepared, young, and alone, she had sent her son away to what she had hoped was a better life. It came at the cost of being a mother to her own son. Of course there had been days, many of them, where Emma had wished she had made a different decision, had kept her baby, had been given the chance to see his first steps, hear his first words, to take him to school and patch up scrapped knees. That was the price she had paid and she had accepted it. She was prepared for what life would mean without him in it.

Ashley had not been. She had everyone in the world telling her she could not be a mother, that she could not raise this child. She had allowed her world to be dictated by others for so long. All she wanted to do was change her life, to do what was right for herself and little Alexandra, no matter how hard it was. She hadn't wanted the easy fix. And yet everyone else had, including Sean's father and wanted Ashley to pay the price of it. They didn't know what it would be like to feel the acute loss of something so precious, to wonder on every one of their child's birthdays if they were safe and well taken care of. They wouldn't spend the rest of their life wondering if the price they paid to fix their problem wasn't too high. Ashley would have had to carry that guilt. And Emma wasn't about to allow her to take on something she wasn't ready for.

"Henry," she drawled softly. "I knew what I was doing when I gave you away. And some would say that it was the easy fix, sure. That all I had to do was walk away and never see my son again. And your mom…screw what Regina thinks, she wasn't the one who gave birth to you and had to let you go. And I can assure you that was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my entire life, and likely ever will."

Henry grew very still beside her. He had been so easy going about the whole adoption thing, surprisingly so. Perhaps it was the fairy tale romance of it all, part of the story he had spun in his head, that she was some great savior, come to rescue them all. She doubted that Henry had ever really considered how difficult a choice it had been, or that Emma might have even considered not doing it at all.

"If you had a chance to go back and change it…would you?" He sounded so hopeful. Perhaps he half believed that she could.

"Henry…it isn't as simple as that. You have a good life here, a life I would have never been able to give you, not where I was at. I needed to make sure you had that chance."

He was quiet for long moments before he nodded softly. "I know. You wanted to give me the best chance possible. Just like your parents did."

Yeah…just like her parents. They had left her on the side of the highway. Still, had her mother cried like Emma had, like Ashley did when she faced the idea of giving up her child? Emma had always wondered, feeling at least that small kinship with the woman who had given her away so long ago.

"In any case, I couldn't let Ashley give up her baby. And if that means I owe Gold something, than so be it. Sure, it gets Ashley off the hook of the agreement. But it's a small price to pay for magic, don't you think?"

"Yeah." It wasn't the answer Henry wanted, but it at least mollified him. "Alexandra is awfully cute."

"Yeah, she is," Emma admitted with the smallest of pangs. "You were too when you were born."

"Was I?" He sounded as if he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. Emma supposed boys didn't like hearing that they were cute.

"You were," she assured him as she glanced somewhat fearfully at her wristwatch. Ten minutes to get him back to Regina's or they were both toast. "If I'm late with you, your Mom is going to kill us both you know." Regina Mills. Emma would dearly love to know what in the hell she had done to get on that woman's bad side so early. Why in the hell should she feel so threatened by Emma? Henry's stories about her being the Evil Queen aside, Regina was rapidly becoming the bane of Emma's somewhat limited existence.

And yet…perhaps that was the price she had to pay. Somehow, magically, on her birthday, her wish was granted. She was given a bit of magic, not to be alone. And her son had somehow wandered magically back into her life. For better or worse, Henry was there now, and he wasn't planning on leaving, no matter what Emma tried. And somehow, for once in her life, she had someone who cared for her…just her. And that made her want to stay. Perhaps then Regina's attitude was the price Emma had to pay for her magic miracle in Henry. And if that was the case, she could take that. After all, she had paid steeper prices in her life. This time, she wasn't going give away her opportunity.


End file.
